1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a three-Dimensional (3D) imaging apparatus, and, in particular, to a 3D imaging apparatus for securing a movement space of a lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
Three-dimensional (3D) imaging technology can be applied to various fields such as information communication, broadcasting, medical care, educational training, military, game, animation, virtual reality, CAD, and industrial technologies.
In general, a human perceives a complex 3D effect by varying the thickness of eye lenses based on a location of an observed object, angles between each of the eyes and the object, location and shape differences of the object perceived by left and right eyes, parallax according to movement of the object, psychology, and memory effect.
Binocular disparity resulting from the horizontal separation of about 6 to 7 cm between a human's two eyes can be one important factor of the stereoscopic 3D effect. In particular, the human sees the object with the angle difference according to the binocular disparity, and therefore, the images coming into the eyes are different from each other. These two images are input to the brain through the retinas, and the brain can perceive a 3D image by accurately uniting the information from these two images.
A 3D imaging apparatus for acquiring a left-eye image and a right-eye image for one object using two optical lens systems can be used to obtain a 3D image.
Such a 3D imaging apparatus may include a left-eye lens unit and a right-eye lens unit. To correct the disparity of the 3D image obtained by the 3D imaging apparatus, a component for moving at least one of the left-eye lens unit and the right-eye lens unit, relative to the other lens unit, can be included.
In order to enable movement of at least one of the left-eye lens unit and the right-eye lens unit, the size of the 3D imaging apparatus can increase. However, there remains a need for miniaturized imaging apparatuses.